Nightmare on Burke's Street
by DjDangerLove
Summary: Every year Peter has the house to himself on Halloween. With Elizabeth away on vacation with her friends from college, Peter has created his own traditions for the holiday. But this year his traditions are going to get an update from Neal and his Halloween is about to get a lot scarier. Friendship fic.


**I swear I will update Dream A Little Dream soon! I swear it! But for now...**

**This is a short, two or three chapter story that's a bit early or really late for Halloween depending on how you look at it. Anyway, I own nothing except a heart that loves White Collar and an imagination. **

**Nightmare on Burke's Street**

Neal jogged up the front steps leading up to the Burke's front door with eagerness. He took a moment to take a breath and wipe the smile off his face before ringing the doorbell and jumping up on the stoop railing out of site. He pressed his back against the house and listened for the sound of footsteps coming closer to the door. He heard them, noticed they weren't the click of heels and bit his lip as he heard the lock of the door twist. The door handle creaked as it turned and the door swung open.

He sucked in a breath, hoping it wasn't a bad idea and jumped down.

* * *

Peter stood in the kitchen pouring milk into his bowl of cereal when the doorbell rang. His arm jerked in surprise and milk spilled out on to the counter and ran down the cabinets to the floor.

"Damn it." He cursed as he sat down the carton and quickly made his way to the door. He unlocked it and swung the door opened only to find an empty porch. No one was at the door. He shook his head and started to grumble, "And it has already started." But suddenly something appeared in front of him.

* * *

Neal jumped down from the railing and yelled, "Boo!" He planned on watching the agent jump back and grab his chest or at the very least jump and let out a curse. What he didn't plan on was being grabbed around the arms and forced up against the wall before he even took a breath.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Peter, stop!" He yelled, trying to wriggle out of the older man's grasp. He felt Peter's grip loosen and with one quick twist he freed himself. Neal stood back, brushed himself off and shot Peter a bewildered look.

"What the hell was that?"

Peter stood in front of him on the porch, hands on his hips breathing hard while glaring at him. "What the hell was that? You tell me! You're the one jumping out at people!"

"Yeah, as a joke! Not so I would get man-handled!"

"Well, what did you expect?"

"I excepted you to jump back a little, not attack me like _Children of the Corn_."

Peter rolled his eyes and huffed. "If anyone in this situation is a child, it's you. What are you doing here?"

Neal relaxed a bit and straightened the wrinkles on his shirt, then looked at Peter with an innocent expression. "What? A guy can't drop by a friend's house on a Saturday afternoon?"

Peter shook his head. "Not when that guy is you. Shouldn't you be out swooning the ladies or going to a party or _something?_"

"Wow, swooning?" Neal raised an eyebrow.

"Would you prefer that I said courtin' ?"

"No." Neal responded immediately. "I actually respect that you didn't."

Peter tilted his head back with a tight smile, before motioning for Neal to follow him inside the house then into the kitchen.

"Woah, Peter. If you need to get your eyes checked I'm sure the FBI can cover it." Neal stated as he stopped beside the island in the kitchen.

"I don't need my eyes checked, Neal." Peter replied while grabbing up a bunch of napkins.

"Are you sure? Because unless you're cleaning the kitchen with milk, I'd say you missed the cereal bowl completely." Neal chuckled until a wet dishrag hit him in the face and dropped to the floor with a damp plop. He glared at Peter before picking it up and wiping up some of the milk on the floor.

"No, for your information I was in the middle of fixing myself a nice bowl of cereal when someone _rudely _showed up on my doorstep." Peter replied, as he too, bent down to wipe the milk up off the floor. He saw Neal stop moving and glanced up to see a grin splitting the younger man's face. He rolled his eyes with a soft laugh. "What now?"

"Nothing." Neal went back to wiping the floor, as did Peter. "Except all I did was ring the doorbell, which means you jumped because the doorbell rang. If I didn't know any better I would think that the Halloween spirit has gotten to you, Peter."

Peter bit his lip while an embarrassed smile threatened to spread across his face. "No. I was just...thinking about something."

"About the gremlins in the attic and your plan to defeat them?"

Peter finished wiping up the last of the milk and placed the napkins in the trash and the dishrags in the sink. "I can appreciate the fact that you have enough childish innocence in you to love Halloween, but it isn't the kind of innocence you really need."

"Oh come on, Peter. How can you not like Halloween?" Neal questioned, sitting down on one of the stools at the island while Peter prepared to make a fresh bowl of cereal.

"It's not that I don't like Halloween. It's just I don't really...enjoy it."

"Why not?"

Peter looked at Neal as if he was a little kid who asked too many questions, but answered anyway as he poured some cereal into a new bowl. "Well, I outgrew trick-or-treating a while ago. I'm not really a horror movie fan. And Elizabeth is never here on Halloween."

"Why isn't she ever here? Where is she?"

"Every year, Elizabeth and her best friends from college go on a little vacation. It's a tradition for them."

"Oh, so what's your tradition? Eat cereal in the afternoon then hand out police academy applications to kids?"

Peter took a bite of cereal. "No, I don't hand out anything, not even candy."

He watched Neal's mouth fall open and chuckled. "What?"

"You don't hand out candy? Peter, I know you're not exactly good with kids, but I never would have guessed you to be the Mr. Wilson of your block."

"Well I do have a menace named Neal." Peter glared, then rolled his eyes. "Besides, the kids are the problem. Not me."

Neal sat up a bit straighter. His grin got a bit wider. Peter knew he had said to much.

"Wait. Are you saying that you're the guy?"

"What guy?"

"You know, Peter, the guy that the kids play pranks on and egg his house because he sits in his house with the lights off pretending he isn't home just so he doesn't have to hand out candy."

Peter scoffed and shook his head. "I do not sit in the dark and pretend I'm not at home. I just...sit here and watch classic movies like _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence_."

"Okay, first, just because it's made in black and white doesn't make it classic."

"Oh, because it's a western?"

"Yes, and it has John Wayne in it." Neal replied as if it was obvious.

"It also has Jimmy Stewart."

"Who should be remembered for any movie but that."

"Even _Rear Window_?"

"Whatever, the point is, is that you get harassed by kids every Halloween. Does Elizabeth know?"

"No. I always get up early and clean the eggs off the door, before she gets home."

"Oh. My. God." Neal pronounced each word with an airy laugh. "Peter, you do realize there's an easy fix to your problem, don't you?"

"Yeah! Put you back in prison." Peter glared, while munching on his cereal.

Neal rolled his eyes. "Peter, all you have to do is hand out candy! That's all they want."

"No! Oh no! They are like ticks, once they get a taste they keep sucking until I'm getting second degree burns from fireworks on the fourth of July and knocking on doors singing Christmas carols with their parents! No absolutely not."

"Peter, don't you think you're being a little over dramatic?" Neal asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the counter.

"No." Peter ended the conversation with one word, using the tone that Neal knew not to push. "Now back to my original question or my main concern. Why are you here?"

The grin that tugged at the corner of Neal's mouth was a familiar one that appeared every time the younger man wanted to get out of something or into it. Peter bit back a groan.

"Well, while I'll admit that your Halloween plans are not exactly inviting and festive, Moz has you beat."

"So you're bored and want something to do." Peter stated.

"I'm bored, but what I want to do comes with limits."

Peter acted surprised. "Oh? Neal Caffrey with limits? Surely it's April Fool's and not Halloween."

"Really?" Neal asked, annoyed by the jab.

"No, you're right. The idea is scary. It's Halloween."

"Are you done?"

Peter chuckled. "Well, you know my plans. You can stay, but you'll watch what I watch and be happy about it, even if it is a western. And you will not, under any circumstances hand out candy to anyone at the door. Those are my limits."

Neal stared at Peter for a moment, as if deciding if he wanted to stay or not. The older man stared back, knowing full well Neal wasn't deciding to stay or go based on the terms he had laid out. He was trying to find a loophole in the ground rules. If he found one, he knew Neal would stay.

"Okay." Neal agreed. " Where's the popcorn, cowboy?"

Peter rolled his eyes at the response, despite the growing sense of horror in the pit of his stomach that had nothing to do with Halloween, and turned to get the popcorn.

* * *

**AN: Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think! **


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